How to Make Skeleton Hands

At Halloween, there is always the opportunity to explore your spooky side. If you're decorating your house horror-style and want to make a spooky addition, try making some skeleton hands to add to the fright. It's pretty easy to do, especially if you have a crafty sensibility. All you need is some wire, clay, tape, small beads and your own hand as a template.

Things You'll Need

• Piece of paper
• Pencil
• Wire (wire coat hangers will do)
• Wire cutters
• 9 1/4-inch beads
• 5 1/2-inch beads
• Masking tape
• White air-drying clay

Instructions

1. Place your hand on the piece of paper, fingers spread. Draw around the outside of your hand to make the template.

2. Cut and bend the wire into the hand shape. Lay the wire against your template from time to time to make sure you're getting the right length to the fingers.

3. Draw lines on the paper template hand where the knuckles and joints are in the fingers: two joints on each finger, one on the thumb and five knuckle bones at the base of the fingers.

4. Lay the wire hand on your template. Slide the beads onto the wire hand, placing them at the points where you've drawn the knuckle and joint lines. Start with the five 1/2-inch beads for the knuckles. Finish with the 9 1/4-inch beads for the joints.

5. Roll masking tape between the knuckle and joint beads on each finger to fatten up the wire between the joints. The tape also keeps the beads from sliding up or down the wire. Your wire hand should be pretty solid now. Bend the fingers into the position you want the hand to assume.

6. Begin covering the tape and beads on your wire hand with pieces of clay. Start with small balls of clay to cover the beads then use longer pieces to cover the long finger sections. All wire should be covered in clay.

7. Use 1-inch chunks of clay nestled against each other to cover the wire "palm" of the hand. Allow to dry. You now have a skeleton hand.

Tips & Warnings

• Repeat the above steps to make additional hands. Paint if desired.